Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Joanne Woodward.

Joanne Woodward (born February 27, 1930), is an actress, television and theatrical producer, and widow of Paul Newman. She is best known for her Academy Award winning role in, The Three Faces of Eve (1957).

Her mother loved movies so much that she named her daughter after Joan Crawford. While attending the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta, nine-year-old Woodward, sat on the lap of Laurence Olivier. She eventually worked with Olivier in 1977, in a television production of, Come Back, Little Sheba. During rehearsals, she mentioned the incident to him and he told her he also remembered.

Woodward, performed in many theatrical productions at Greenville High and in Greenville's Little Theatre, playing Laura Wingfield in their staging of, The Glass Menagerie. She returned to Greenville in 1976 to play Amanda Wingfield in another Little Theatre production of, The Glass Menagerie. She had also returned in 1955 for the premiere of her debut movie, Count Three And Pray.

Woodward majored in drama at Louisiana State University, then headed to New York City to perform on the stage.

Woodward's first film was, Count Three and Pray, in 1955. She continued to move between Hollywood and Broadway, eventually understudying in the New York production of Picnic, which featured Paul Newman. The two were married in 1958, after their work together in the film, The Long, Hot Summer. By that time, Woodward had starred in, The Three Faces of Eve (1957), for which she won the 1957 Academy Award for Best Actress.

Woodward performed with husband Paul Newman in ten films:

The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958)
From the Terrace (1960)
Paris Blues (1961)
A New Kind of Love (1963)
Winning (1969)
WUSA (1970)
The Drowning Pool (1975)
Harry & Son (1984) - (directed by Newman)
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990)
Both appeared in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls but had no scenes together.

She starred in five films that Newman directed or produced but in which he did not star:

Woodward, also performed in the films: Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams and Philadelphia (1993) in which she played the mother to Tom Hanks' character. She performed in the television films: Sybil, opposite Sally Field, and Crisis at Central High. She was the narrator for Martin Scorsese's screen version of one of my favorite films of all time, The Age of Innocence.

Woodward, was a co-producer and starred in a 1993 broadcast of the play Blind Spot, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie. She was executive producer of the 2003 television production of, Our Town, featuring Newman as the stage manager (for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award.) She wrote the teleplay and directed a 1982 production of Shirley Jackson's story, Come Along with Me, for which husband Newman provided the voice of the character Hughie under the screen name of P. L. Neuman.

Personal Quote:

"Being married to Paul is being married to the most considerate, romantic man."